"In their highest boughs the world rustles, their roots rest in infinity; but they do not lose themselves there, they struggle with all the force of their lives for one thing only: to fulfill themselves according to their own laws, to build up their own form, to represent themselves."
And
"Whoever has learned how to listen to trees no longer wants to be a tree. He wants to be nothing except what he is. That is home. That is happiness."
Back to my thoughts... I think given the complexity of social systems, and the unrelenting demand for the convenience of uniformity, within those systems, learning and thriving in the context of Hesse's analogy of the tree is probably the most challenging thing around. And, 'hell, yes', it's a challenge I am going for because I want to be myself, not someone else's conception of what I should be or something that conveniently pours into and sets in the rigid social mold. I keep on returning to the only line I can remember from the high school prayer: "Lord, let me not bend my knee before willful might."
The larger piece from which I grabbed those Hesse quotes is here...
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